[Franco Basaglia: the body and the corporality of the encounter.] / Franco Basaglia: il corpo e l'incontro con l'altro.

On the centenary of the birth of Franco Basaglia - Italian psychiatrist and neurologist - it is incumbent upon us to question the ways in which Basaglia can critically illuminate or help us interpret the social uncertainty in which we are living. Many important contributions have enriched our knowledge of Basaglia's work in recent months. He was a modern practical intellectual, in the Gramscian sense, where the authentic intellectual moves from the real needs of the masses and seeks their solution from the given historical situation, recomposing it in the more general course of the world. Basaglia addresses our society: Do we want to be "fair"? Do we not want to remain in barbarism? Then, in our project of democracy, there must be a place for madness. It is not enough to stop marginalizing the insane or those whom, in the language of medicalization, we call "mentally ill". We have to make room for it. We must "reload" Basaglia's work beginning with restoring value to the centrality of the encounter with the other and to the corporality of the encounter, two themes that guided Franco Basaglia throughout his life.

Working together for public health.

Italy's recent economic growth and strategic position in the Mediterranean Sea have made it a prime destination for immigrants and asylum seekers in Europe. Despite its well-developed health care system, statistics on foreign citizens' health are worrisome. In 1998 public health services were extended to illegal immigrants, giving them the right to necessary urgent and non-urgent medical assistance, even for a prolonged period. This paper examines a two-year joint intervention project between Centre for the Study and Research of Public Health (Mental Health), Local Health Agency ROMA E (LHA RME) and the non-governmental organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Rome.

The Age of Anxiety: Stones, Feathers and Re-institutionalization.

Although the value of the Italian psychiatric reform is widely acknowledged and hotly contested, a meticulous comment on its roots and progress is required. This paper attempts to examine the current state of mental health services in Italy and emphasizes Franco Basaglia's writings. The aim of the paper is to: (1) respond to the challenge of providing adequate and human rights-based mental health services, (2) contrast the new Italian tendency of medicalization, which is supported by a law proposal to re-institutionalize the mental health care system. The analysis is based on both current and historical library work and literature review. Since the present policy seems to be proceeding backwards, the direct study of Basaglia's writings assumes significance in not forgetting the past as well as in re-interpreting the present risk of re-institutionalization. The paper then emphasizes the veracity of Basaglia's thought and suggests a re-reading of his work.

Politics of healing and politics of culture: ethnopsychiatry, identities and migration.

Ethnopsychiatry is today a contested field, in which concepts and terms such as ethnicity, identity, culture, citizenship, traditional therapies or symbolic efficacy are used in a very controversial way. Recent accusations of'racism' against some ethnopsychiatrists have contributed to making more obscure the deep roots of these issues and controversies. Little attention has been paid to analysing the complex legacy of colonial psychiatry, as well as the relationships among current definitions of 'culture' and 'belonging', post-colonial subjectivities and migration. In this article, the authors briefly analyse the contributions of Italian ethnopsychiatry and investigate the hidden expressions of racism and prejudice still characterizing mental health workers' attitudes toward immigrants. It is argued that a 'generative' and community-based ethnopsychiatry can challenge the hegemony of western psychiatry and improve the quality of therapeutic strategies.